Scrabble Player Kicked out of National Tournament for Cheating

A young Scrabble player was kicked out of the game’s national tournament after it was discovered he was cheating. According to tournament organizers,

The cheating was spotted by a player at a nearby table, who noticed the ejected player conceal a pair of blank tiles by dropping them on the floor… When confronted by the tournament director, he admitted to it.

The male player (who is a minor) was ejected from the event.

Evidently, this type of thing is pretty rampant in the Scrabble community. John D. Williams Jr., the executive director of the National Scrabble Association , said that while this is the first time such an incident has happened on the national level it is “known to occur at smaller, regional events”.

I fully expect cheating to happen at things like the Tour De France, but at Scrabble tournaments? Evidently, this guy never had his grandmother say to him during a game, “When you cheat you only cheat yourself.” (Which has happened to me.)